Process of manufacturing brick



NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH J. KULAGE, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING BRICK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 516,378, dated March13, 1894. Application filed May 2,1892- Serial No. 433L542. (N0specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH J. KULAGE, of St. Louis, Missouri, have madeanew and useful Improvement in Processes of Manufacturing Bricks, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The improvement under consideration relates to an improved method ofmaking bricks.

The improvement is adapted not only to many kinds of clay but also toother forms of earthy material suitable for bricks.

It consists substantially asfollows: I take the clay, or other materialout of which the bricks are to be formed, and, by means of ordinaryappliances and procedures such as used by brick makers in manufacturingbricks by what is termed the wet or mud process, or by means of anyequivalent means and method, press the material into certain shapes orforms, and preferably into forms of the shape and size of bricks: saidforms are then dried more or less, and preferably to that degree ofdryness which is usually required in preparing clay for a dry pressbrick machine; I then crush or more or less pulverize said dried formsand preferably to that degree of fineness which is employed in preparingclay foradry-press brick machine;

.and I then form said pulverized material, by

means of any of the usual dry or semi-dry brick machines, or anyequivalent mechanism, into pressed bricks ready for burning. Thesubjection of the. clay or other brickforming material to a wet processtreatment as herein set forth is an essential preliminary to theremaining steps of the method under consideration. The pugging,tempering, and disintegrating of the clay, &c., which are involved incarrying out a Wet process, are necessary, especially in that therebymany kinds of clay, hard, tough, or tenacious clays, and shale, arebrought into a plastic, uniform, condition, and rendered suitable forthe remaining steps of the process; the clays, after being thus treatedare dried can be more easily, thoroughly, and completely crushed andpulverized than if it had not been thus treated; the material alsoyields more readily -ness,'or vitrification in the finished brick.

The shaping of the clay, 856., after having been thus subjected to a wetprocess treatment, into forms is rather for the purpose of facilitatingthe drying of the material which if left to remain in large quantitiesor bulk would require too long a time to dry.

The present process is especially valuable in-localities in which theconditions for obtaining dry clay are unfavorable.

I claim- The hereindescribed method of making bricks, the sameconsisting in subjecting the clay, or other brick-forming material, tothe same treatment substantially as is required for making bricks by theordinary wet processes, then pressing said materialinto forms, thendrying said forms, then crushing or pulverizing said dried forms, andthen forming said dried, crushed, or pulverized material into unburnedbricks, and then burning the same.

Witness my hand this 29th day of April, 1892.

J OSE-PH J. KULAGE.

Witnesses:

O. D. MOODY, A. BONVILLE.

